Month: February 2017

On Wednesday I’ll be purchasing my first hobby box of the set and shipping out a sealed pack from the box to anywhere from two-four lucky readers!

To be in the drawing for a pack all you need to do is comment on this post once. I’ll be posting a video of the drawing on Wednesday March 1st 6pm CST so the chance to enter will be cut off about twenty minutes before then.

In an earlier post I stated I wasn’t going to buy boxes of the main release this year and was just going to enter some box breaks online for the Cubs and Twins and then purchase the complete set at the end of the year.

eBay prices have forced me to change course. The Cubs have been selling for obscene prices – $77, 83, 68, 65, 87, 74?!?! for a 3 box Jumbo break! Sure, they have more cards since they won the WS but in 3 Jumbo boxes you’re going to get about three base team sets, a few inserts, possibly a variant, and the really lucky ones will pull a relic. Most of them will not get an auto.

So, I took my $65 to the LCS and bought my own Hobby Box.

Kris Bryant gets the box again to start his 3rd season. Is a 40 HR year coming?

My first card showcases a modern angular perspective design for the cards. I like it, just not as much as the 2015 cards. The backs have a nice bold color scheme as well as some players’ twitter and instagram account tags so fans can follow them on such. (Hopefully being cordial and respectful, never harassing!)

The Golds are pretty lackluster this time around with a small patch as shown.

Same goes for the blacks. This is a 66/66, though, which is kind of neat!

The foils standout to me once again with the full picture bleed. My pic doesn’t really show how cool they are. If you have any Twins or Cubs of these please send them my way!

Sigh. These are reprints of classic cards with advertisements on the back. I’m not sure if these counted towards my cards per pack but I’d of preferred them to be simply ads and not to have them disguised as cards.

1:36 pull. I don’t watch the MLB Network but I can see how this would be kinda cool for those who do. Maybe Topps recognized this and that’s why they made them scarcer then the ad cards!

I have a strong feeling that the First Pitch inserts are going to be included in every main release set for eternity. I love them. There does seem to be a Wrigley Field bias.

I love the 5 Tool set as well. Great design, nice player selection, interesting write-ups. I’m only going to collect certain players since the checklist on this is 50 cards so the Kemp, Kindler, and Moncada are available for trade.

My first year of collecting cards was 1987. This is going to be an ambitious undertaking but I’m going to try to complete this 100 card set. Please send me any you can spare!

I have no interest in Bowman cards but I’m going to keep these except the Machado.

This seems to be overkill. There already is an insert set with a huge checklist and then they include this Topps Salute set as well with another 100 cards. I feel like they should have just concentrated on the holidays for this one and left out the Legends and Rookies. These are available for trade except the Sano.

Another sigh. I’ve never been a fan of relics but I have become used to their appearance. What bothers me with this one isn’t the design. I think that looks great. In my mind I was pretty sure Ryu was injured last year. I checked Baseball Reference. Yep. One game. ONE GAME! He went 4.2 innings and allowed 6 runs! If he’s healed and ready to pitch this year – Great! Save these for Series 2. Over 900 players played in 2016 and Topps includes a relic of the guy who played in one of them. Sigh.

And, yeah. Buybacks are now called Rediscover Topps. I did get a 1974 card in a Jumbo but this is what I pulled from the hobby box. My 3rd sigh.

Final Tally

311 of 350 base

47 inserts

0 doubles

I don’t think I’m going to buy anymore so it’ll be interesting to see if I can trade for the set, especially the 87 inserts. If you can help, let me know! I did buy two judo packs so I do have some base doubles and a few more inserts.